reese witherspoon – GoodeyReads

Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: Contemporary romance
Length: 409 pages
Author: Josie Silver
Publisher: Broadyway Books
Expected Release Date: October 16th, 2018
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic… and then her bus drives away.

Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.

What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.

INFINITELY BETTER AS IT WENT ON.

So close.

This was another so close to DNF. I have unfortunately hit a streak of these, but luckily I am still giving them a chance! I started this as an audio book while owning a copy. I did NOT like the audio. I have no concrete reasons, couldn’t connect with the narrator, hated the MC and there was too much language for me to listen comfortably.

So I turned it off and instead tried reading the book. I read it over a month in short spans when I didn’t have to pick up my next book immediately. Did this help? YUP. Game changer.

Laurie really annoyed me at first with her inability to chill about Jack. I couldn’t handle the crazed enthusiasm to find this ONE GUY after seeing him ONE TIME. Then her continual pining for him while he was dating her best friend really bothered me.

Finally, finally. Laurie grew up a bit. Accepted the fate in her hands at present and went about her life. They all did. And from there I saw a growth in friendships, relationships, work, family, many areas! It was terribly difficult to watch the struggles, pain, and hardships that these three had to fight through. The story really blossomed and I was falling hard for Laurie, Jack, and Sarah.

By the end, the story had wrapped around my heart and held it in a tight grip as the movie-like ending rolled on the page. IT WAS SO PRECIOUS. And while cheesy was exactly what this book called for and made me hand over four stars. Why four? I personally could not handle the unnecessary use of language. It was flagrant, out of place and I didn’t like it. Also, since it took so long for me to go give this story a chance I knocked it down a bit.

If you’re like me and curious about this book, I would definitely give a try! Reese Witherspoon picked this book for a reason!

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary fiction romance
Language: a lot of strong language
Romance: kisses, make-outs, love scenes (ranging from fade-to-black to mildly descriptive)
Violence: car wreck, physical, emotional
Trigger warnings: cheating (by way of kisses), cheating (emotionally attached to someone while with someone else, yes, I do count this as a form of cheating)

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Book Review: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

June 19, 2019May 30, 2019 GoodeyReads

Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: Fiction
Length: 368 pages
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: March 5th, 2019
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

ACHINGLY CAPTIVATING.

First off, listen to this as an audiobook if possible. It was so cool having so many voices. It really brought everything to life. I felt like I was listening to one of those MTV Behind the Music shows about some band. It made it a really quick listen (it’s only 9 1/2ish hours, not sped up).

The only thing iffy about listening to it fast, and on audio is sometimes it would get choppy switching to character after character. It wasn’t every single page, but I did notice it occasionally.

This was super addicting. I didn’t know how I was going to feel about it when I started, but dang, I couldn’t stop listening. It truly was a lot of sex drugs, and rock n’ roll. Holy cow. I was shocked by all of the things that this band did and went through. And yet, it was even more shocking, because these kind of things probably happened at a time or another with bands.

I honestly hated every character at one point, and loved them at others. I loved how at odds I was with each person’s choices, but how I wanted them to be happy and fulfilled anyways. I was happy to understand decisions and have true endings to everyone so I could feel like the story had closed.

At times I was so distraught with the emotions brought out by the story line. I anxiously awaited what tore this band apart, and y’all, it was exactly what this story needed. The little twist made sense and really hit home the struggles that can occur in these situations.

Reese Witherspoon is amazing at choosing books for her club, I yet again really enjoyed reading another one of her picks.

Overall audience notes:

Adult fiction
Language: a lot of strong language
Romance: a lot of sex, but not detailed; more, they had sex over there, they did that last night kind of explanations
Violence: underage drinking, drug abuse, parental neglect
Trigger warnings: cheating spouse, drug and alcohol addictions, abortion, depression